The first entry into the How To Split An Atom 30 second pitch meme comes from a long time reader, Brian Williford. His project is called Moolets and it is a combination social network and widget repository.

The Pitch

Moolets are widgets programmed in Mootools and Ajax. Moolets.com is a community where Mootools Geeks can share their moolets, generate some buzz about them or discuss development. All moolets here will be freely distributed in typical open source fashion.

Initial Impression

At the moment Moolets only has one available widget and it is an AJAX reader visualization widget in the same vein as MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog. The version that I saw was for Joomla only, but it is very likely that versions will be released for other content management systems. What I did see was really slick. A few people logged into the system while I was registering and as they did they “appeared” on the widget strip.

The social network is standard fare. You can create a profile, add pictures and message members. The heavy use of AJAX manages to ease navigation without becoming a distraction. All in all the project is a good case study for anyone who wants to create applications in AJAX.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The value proposition? Well, that is entirely dependent on how many people are truly interested in Mootools and how well the team can promote their product to them. The world of widgets is teaming with developers, but the question can be made as to how many of them deal strictly with Mootools. If I were to give them any advice, I would suggest leveraging as much social media as they can — get out there in Forums, on Twitter, on Digg and let the community in on this secret.

If you are ever going to hit scale you will have to find those five or ten users willing to submit large amounts of content to seed the system. Once you do this, others will come.

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